Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
is set in a small village and valley in rural Europe. The village, Rennes-le-Chateau,
is a real village and is the location of a Great Enigma -- either that or
a Great Scam, depending on your level of belief.

The case begins when Gabriel is invited
for a weekend at the home of a currently dethroned royal scion. Grace is
delighted, assuming that at last they're moving into the kinds of circles
a family like the Ritters ought to hobnob with. But it turns out that the
'Prince's' motivation for inviting Gabriel was not a social one. He has a
new infant son and is concerned for his safety because the Prince's family
has been plagued for generations by what seem to be a secretive sect of
vampires.

It turns out the Prince was right to be
afraid. The very first night Gabriel watches guard over his infant son the
boy is kidnapped. Gabriel gives chase and winds up at the train station.
He follows the kidnappers to Rennes-le-Chateau but quickly loses their
trail.

Gabriel will come to realize that the
mystery that surrounds the Prince's family and the mystery of this ancient
little town are not only connected, but will involve both very real
current political agendas and ancient secrets. Once at the town, Gabriel
discovers that a tour group arrived about the same time he did. He
considers all of the members of the tour suspects even, perhaps, his old
friend Mosely, who just happens to be 'on vacation' with the tour. Grace
soon joins him and while Gabriel investigates the suspects and his leads
on the kidnapping, Grace is convinced that the mystery is tied to the
Rennes-le-Chateau's enigma and she sets out to solve it.

Installation
And Settings

The game installs on the first of three
CD's. The rest of CD 1 and through to CD 3 includes the music and game
data for the next three days worth of adventure. The game itself installs
without a hitch and you are given an icon on your desktop to start the
game.

The
Gameplay

At the beginning of the game Gabriel
Knight accepts an invitation to visit Prince James of Albany in Paris.
Prince James is the heir to the throne in Scotland. Gabriel accepts the
invitation, with some reservation though, and Grace and Gabriel set out to
investigate an unusual disease plaguing Prince's family. On the first
night of the watch an unknown visitor enters the house and kidnaps the
baby. Gabriel pursues the intruder and eventually leads to a train.
Gabriel is knocked out by someone and wakes up the next morning in a small
rural French hotel.

As per usual with the Gabriel Knight series, this game is huge. The
story line that unfolds through out the game is done be the master story
teller, Jane Jenson. This story revolves vampires and links in the
Templars and the Holy Grail mystery. The way Jane Jenson mixes history and
fiction and the comparisons she makes is quite good.

The game has gone through many
manifestations in its time from being a 2D game to a FMV video game to
now. Instead of rehashing the old engine to get it to try and cope with
the new demands of the story and games players, Sierra has completely
redone the games engine from the bottom up. The joy of this new
games engine is the powerful camera controls. You are not restricted to
just one position with a 360 degree movement. You can place the camera
anywhere you want with great ease.

Within the game as with the previous two,
you get to control Gabriel and Grace throughout the game. The good thing I
have found with the Gabriel Knight series of games is that when you are
controlling Gabriel of grace you don't have to stand in a room with
objects and move the mouse from side to side with an object in your hand
to try and find out what you should do next. This does have a lot to with
once again with the comprehensive story that Jane Jenson unfolds.

In this game Gabriel's voice is supplied by Tim Curry. Although
it is generally well done, after long periods of time you might find that his
voice starts to annoy you. Most of the other voices used in the game are
very good and all the voices are animated and choreographed very
well.

One of the joys of the game is the
control system that has been made so you have an excellent camera control
system and lets you get around the game very quickly. One of the benefits
of the camera system is that you are not limited to where you want to
look. You can also use the camera to move across the room or area very
quickly because you can go to the end of the room and click on the door
and Gabriel appears behind the camera so you don't have to wait for him to
walk across the room.

Graphics,
Sound & Music

The graphics that are used
in the game are breathtaking with the countryside and the rooms done
brilliantly. The way that the lip sinking is some of the best I have seen.
On the sound and music side of things, the sound is well done, but after a
while the music does start to annoy, but in general it is quite good. As
mentioned before the graphics and the lip synching is excellent.

On the whole this game is
quite good, it has a strong story, but can be a tad slow at times.
Excellent graphics and lip synching. This game will keep you going for a
while and the new graphical engine is a mass improvement. Only the lack of
depth in some of the story might let it down.

Specs
& Package

Overall
Score

80%

Version
Reviewed

Version

Release
Date

Out
Now Worldwide

In
The Box?

2
CD's
1 Manual

The
Good Points

Excellent
Story
Long Game
Good Music
Some Great Graphics
Excellent Lip Synching